The History of the Meetings on Photochemistry in Latin-America. “Encuentros Latinoamericanos de Fotoquímica y Fotobiología (ELAFOT)” and other Meetings.
In 2004, on the occasion of the VIII ELAFOT in La Plata, Argentina, John Simon and myself wrote an article on the history of these meetings (Photochem. Photobiol. 2005, 81, 768-770). A Table with the ELAFOT meetings sequence is shown below.
In 2006, The Inter-American Photochemical Society (I-APS) organized its meeting in San Salvador de Bahia, Brazil (five years after its previous Latin-American Meeting in Ascochinga, Córdoba, Argentina). It was a wonderful meeting in an impressive setting.
Frank Quina, Claudio Nascimento, José Carlos Netto Ferreira and Amauri Marcato organized in November 2008 the IXth ELAFOT in the Centro de Capacitaçäo e Pesquisa em Meio Ambiente (CEPEMA, Center for Environmental Research and Training) in Cubatäo, Brasil. It was again an excellent meeting, almost on the beach, namely in a hotel directly on the beach border. A couple of days before the ELAFOT, we had the opportunity of celebrating Esther Oliveros 60th birthday, with a scientific symposium and a party also in Cubatäo.
The Chilean colleagues planned the Xth ELAFOT (called XELAFOT) to be held in La Serena, Chile, in April 2010. Unfortunately, due to the Chilean devastating earthquake and its consequences, the meeting had to be cancelled. Elsa Abuin, Antonio Zanocco, Alexis Aspee, Nancy Pizarro, Else Lempe, Marco Soto, Julio de la Fuente, Eduardo Silva, Andrés Olea and German Günther made a tremendous effort and managed to recall the meeting in the same place in October 2010. During the meeting, which was scientifically and personally a wonderful experience, we lived through the emotions of the rescue of the 33 miners, who were brought to the surface during the Conference days (see report in https://www.esp-photobiology.it/esp/file/x-elafot.pdf. A session during the Conference was dedicated to Carlos Previtali, leader of the photochemistry group at the University of Rio Cuarto (Argentina) and teacher of several generations of photochemists and another one was dedicated to Eduardo Silva (Universidad Católica de Chile) who has established an internationally recognized research group on flavins and the chemistry of their photoexcited states.
In May 2011, the I-APS held its meeting in Latin-America in Mendoza, Argentina, wonderfully organized by Pedro Aramendía, Ana Moore, Gonzalo Cosa, Mónica González, Valeria Kleiman, Teresa Atvars and Elsa Abuin (Chile). The local organizing Committee was formed by Beatriz Barja, Mónica González, Carolina Lorente, María Julia Roberti, and Andrés Thomas (all five from Argentina). A workshop preceded the meeting treating specific photochemical aspects mostly related to novel materials and techniques to study them, and solar energy conversion.
In October 2012 we meet in Córdoba, the argentine city with a permanent good weather, in the Hotel La Cañada.
Silvia E. Braslavsky |
